Hampstead Hall
by ExclaCrystal
Summary: Hary reads about some orphaned children and decides to found a childrens home. Terrible summary so I apologise. Canon relationships, set 3 years after the final battle.
1. Chapter 1

A/N Okay, so I should really be updating my other stories, but I think that I'm going to give up on one and I still need one more review for the other. Anyway, my inspiration for this fic was a story I read a long time ago that I can't remember the name of or the author of – so if anyone can tell me... And also, I sorta need a BETA. If anyone could spare some time to BETA my next chapter, please leave a review. Or just leave a review for the sake of it!

Disclaimer: not mine, probably never will be...

"What'cha doing Harry?" mumbled a very tired looking Ron Weasley and he entered the kitchen of GrimauldPlace.

"Reading the Daily Prophet?" Harry replied, setting down the newspaper with a slight smirk on his face at the sight of Ron's appearance. He knew that Ron was definitely not a morning person; spending months sharing a tent with him had given Harry that impression, but it was ten o'clock in the morning! "There's bread in the cupboard if you want toast." Harry added as he picked up the wizarding paper again and continued to read. After about a minute, during which Ron had made, buttered, jammed and started to eat his toast.

"Whe 'ermnonne go'?" started Ron, but at Harry confused look, he swallowed and repeated, "Where's Hermione gone?"

"She went upstairs about an hour ago to have a shower, and then I think that she was going to write to her parents." Although Hermione and Ron had found her parents more than three years ago, she was constantly worrying about and made a habit of writing to them every other day. Ron nodded with understanding and then looked towards the ceiling as they both heard a creak of the floorboards overhead, signalling Hermione's movement.

Just as Harry was about to finish the article he was reading, Hermione entered the room, a bright smile plastered to her face.

"They're fine. My parents, they're fine!" Almost immediately Ron was by her side, giving her his usual 'Good Morning Kiss'. After about thirty seconds, Harry had had enough. He cleared his throat, but with an amused look on his face. When he was quite sure that they had stopped, he turned the page of his paper and started to read another piece. When he reached about the middle, he sensed Hermione just behind him, peering over his shoulder, reading too. She still finished just before him and waited to see his view.

"What's going on then?" asked Ron, a curious but slightly worried look on his face.

"Death Eaters," Harry replied, with an uncharacteristic sour expression, "who else would it be?" he added with glare. Ron held his hands up in surrender.

"Alright, calm down. I was only asking!"

"Harry," Hermione started with a quick glance to the headline – which read _'Five Orphans Found on the Streets of Muggle London'_ – before continuing quickly, "Harry, there must be something that we can do."

"Okay, forgive me for asking, but What The Bloody Hell Is In That Paper? First Harry goes all evil looking, sorry mate, and then Hermione going all teary eyed..." he was cut off by Harry chucking him the paper.

"Page three," Harry told him. Ron had a quick look at the article, and then turned the page.

"It would be quicker if you just told me..." At Hermione's glare, he added, "Not because I'm lazy, but you know, because it's THREE pages long and you know that I don't read very fast."

"This article in particular is about five newly orphaned children, aged six, nine, eleven, twelve and fourteen who were found by aurors yesterday, hiding on the streets of London. Their parents were killed by death eaters in an attack last week. This isn't the first article with this type of story." She turned to Harry and then continued, "I was just thinking that there must be care homes or something for them to go to, but it hasn't mentioned them in any of the articles that I've read. I thought that maybe we could, I don't know, talk to Kingsley and see if there's anything that we could do..."

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The good thing about being the saviour of the wizarding world, Harry decided, was that even on a Saturday afternoon he could walk into the Ministry of Magic and see the Minister without an appointment. The bad thing, however, was that he couldn't walk up to the Minister's Office without turning the head of every employee or visitor that he passed. He couldn't help but compare it to his years at Hogwarts. After what felt like hours of embarrassment, although it was probably only a number of minutes in reality, he arrived at Kingsley's office. Kingsley had been Acting Minister for three months after the final battle, but had soon become Minister for Magic of his own accord. Harry knocked twice on the door and heard a deep,

"Enter." Harry then greeted the man as an old friend, and after exchanging pleasantries, heard,

"So, why are you here? Not that it's not nice to have a chat, but I'm assuming that you had a reason for coming. I thought that it might be something to do with the Death Eater attack, but that was last week..." Harry cut him off saying,

"It does, in a way, but it has more to do with the report on those children. First, though, where are they at the moment?"

"They're at St. Mungo's," Kingsley said, sounding slightly confused, "but they can't stay there for much longer. But what does any of this have to do with you? I understand that you're concerned, but..." Once again Harry him off,

"Hermione and I had the idea of founding a children's home. If there is already one in existence, then I will leave here with nothing changed, but if there isn't, I would be in your debt if you could allow us to found one."

"Harry, I'm not saying that I disagree with your suggestion, but there are hundreds of children who are orphans. How are you going to care for that many people?"

"We had the idea of just opening it to children affected by the war initially. Including muggleborns."

"Look, Harry, I can't just say yes, or no for that matter, straight away. It will take at least a couple of days to go through all the formalities even without having to get people's permission."

"If you could let me know your decision by next Sunday, I would be grateful."Harry said, relief clear on his face. "Don't get up Kingsley, I'll show myself out. And thank you."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Okay, so long time no write, but I was busy! From now on I will post every Saturday. Right, I had had one story alert – you know who you are, so thank you! – but no reviews. . I still need a BETA, but I am also going to need some character ideas. I won't use them until I start to introduce people, which will be in a few chapters, but I wanted to give you some time. Anyway, if you want to make a character, please write their **_**whole**_** name, the date of birth – this is set in 2001 – blood status, and if they attend Hogwarts, their house. You could also write why they need to live in HH, but you don't have to. Anyway, HAPPY READING.**

**P.S. this is the longest chapter I have ever written – 5 pages of size 11 font!**

The next morning found Harry knocking on the door to the flat of Angelina Johnson. He was already in a bit of a bad mood; most probably originating from his conversation with George Weasley about the whereabouts of this flat – _"Harry, mate, why you want to know, she's __**my**__ girlfriend!"_ Harry checked his watch, and then knocked on the door again. He was in a hurry, but that did not excuse his rude manners, or the fact that he was slouching against the doorframe with his wand in clear view.

When the door finally opened, Harry turned around, and then stopped.

"I, um," he started, a blush already forming on his cheeks, "Hi." He added with a small wave.

"Hey Harry," Angelina replied, seemingly unfazed by her rather skimpy nightie, which was a light pink silk with black lace around the edges – it had been an early Christmas present from George. "What can I help you with?"

"I, er, is Ginny here?" he stuttered, trying, in vain, to control the very prominent redness that was now covering his face. Angelina gave him a smirk that seemed to say _'I should have known'_, before adding,

"Yeah, but she's probably wearing less than me; you may have to wait a bit for her to get changed." She gave him another grin before leading him into the living space of the significantly larger on the inside flat. After knocking loudly on Ginny's door and shouting that Harry was here, she walked into the kitchen and making three cups of tea. By the time she had made them and carried them out to where Harry was now lounging on the sofa, reading a magazine, Ginny was just walking out of her room. She was dressed in a pair of skinny jeans with a simple red, green and navy blue checked shirt. She had just had time to pull a pair of sock on too, but they weren't matching and one of them was the wrong way round. This however, only seemed to add to Harry's very positive perception of the youngest Weasley. Ginny caught him staring and stuck her tongue out with a cheeky grin, before saying slyly,

"Like what you see, Potter?" Harry stumbled over his words again, but this time it was hardly noticeable.

"You look gorgeous, Gin. Anyway, I did actually come here with a purpose in mind." At Ginny's raised eyebrows, he quickly added, "Not _that_ purpose! Get your head out of the gutter!"

"But it's more fun there!" Ginny smiled and then started, "I'm sure that Angelina wouldn't mind backing..." Her sentence was quickly cut off as Angelina dropped her cup of tea and pounced on Ginny, holding a sofa cushion over Ginny's head until Harry banished it.

"What did you do that for?" Angelina moaned.

"She..."

"I couldn't breathe you idiot!" Ginny shouted at her, her face already starting to show the telltale signs of a Weasley blush. Harry quickly jumped between the two – a very brave thing to do, as both of the women were stubborn and prone to becoming violent. He turned to face Ginny again, a slight grin spreading across his face as he saw the large brown mark on her shirt where the tea had spilt. She too glanced toward it, before rolling her eyes and vanishing it. Angelina gave a snort, and at Harry's questioning look proceeded to tell Harry of the time when Ginny had tried to do the same whilst sitting in The Leaky Cauldron, but had actually vanished her trousers because of her lousy aim. Harry looked like he was about to start chuckling with her, but at Ginny's murderous look, decided that it was safer not to.

"Right... Now do you two think that you could sit still long enough for me to debrief Ginny on her mission?" At Ginny's rolling of her eyes, Harry said, "No, I'm serious, "

"No, you're Harry," Ginny mumbled, not quite letting Harry hear.

"What was that? Anyway, I am serious, it _is _a mission." Ginny leant forward now, her elbows on her knees, and her head resting on her hands, "I want you, to go, to... Gringotts!" By now Ginny was not quite so keen to complete this 'mission'.

"Please," she said, "Gringotts? What's so interesting about that? Anyway, I said I'd go to Diagon Alley with Angelina today, so sorry..." Ginny started, but Harry cut her off, his voice now slightly louder,

"No, Ginny, This Is Important! Just because you don't want to go there today doesn't mean that you don't have to. You know perfectly well that I can't step foot in there for another twenty two years, and as this isn't Ministry business I CAN'T GO THERE MYSELF!" Harry took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, before re starting, "Look Ginny, I know that you don't want to go, but this is," He stopped, "Well I don't think that you can call it a matter of life or death, but it is certainly a matter of making sure that certain other children don't get a bringing up like mine or, "he added with a shudder, "Tom Riddle."

Angelina took a glance at the pair of them. Harry was still a bit red from his rant at Ginny, and she was now looking rather pale at the thought of the child Tom Riddle.

"Ginny, it's fine; I can go and see Katie today. You go to Gringotts, and then spend the rest of the day with Harry. I don't mind. Bye you two," she waved as she walked into her room to get dressed.

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After a quick goodbye to Harry – he had to go to Andromeda's house to look after Teddy for the morning, or what was left of it – she apparated to The Leaky Cauldron. A small conversation with Hannah later, she was already walking towards the grand marble building at the opposite end of Diagon Alley. With a purpose in her step, she entered the building, simply flashing a smile at the guards before she was ushered in without scanning. Unfortunately for her, thee goblins did not care as much as the wizard guards about her celebrity status.

Sunday was a busy day for all of the businesses in the alley, and Gringotts was no different. There were at least five person queues at each of the podiums where there were goblins ready to talk to customers. The witches and wizards there all didn't seem to mind if she went straight to the front, but the goblins wouldn't allow it.

Ginny picked the queue which looked like it had the least occupants. She glanced at the lady right at the front of the queue. She was a reasonably tall woman, who, by her poise and what Ginny could hear of her speech, was well educated, and most likely a pure-blood. She shook her head, trying to get those thoughts out of her mind.

'_Thinking that is almost as bad as the Death Eater ideals.'_ She scolded herself, _'And don't try denying that you wanted to slap her, she can't help if she was born that way anymore than Hermione could when she was being hunted.'_.

Her strange expression during this must have caught the attention of the small girl standing in front of her in the queue with her mother. The child couldn't have been older than seven, but the look on her face as she recognised _Harry Potter's Girlfriend(!)_ was astonishing. She pulled on the sleeve of her mother, whispering and pointing at Ginny, who had now noticed the little girl.

"Mummy," the girl said in quite a loud whisper, "Mummy, it's Ginny Weasley!" Ginny turned to face the girl directly and whispered back to her awed face,

"I know! But don't tell everyone, they'll all want to talk to me!" She gave a grin to her before adding in her normal voice, "What's your name?" The child spoke back nervously,

"Lucy. And I'm six years old tomorrow!" By this time she had gotten over her previous nervousness and was speaking to Ginny with an eager expression on her face.

Ginny felt her smile grow wider; she could remember exactly how she felt when she was younger and it was nearing her birthday.

"Really?" at Lucy's nod she added, "So what are you hoping for?" Lucy's huge smile was now wearing off. She glanced toward her mother and then said without any expression,

"Not much. I know that Mummy doesn't have much money to spare. But it's fine." The little girl's eyes were starting to fill with tears. "My Daddy died in the war," she explained, "And I have three older brothers and one older sister."

Ginny knew exactly how she felt.

"Can you keep a secret?" she whispered. Lucy gave a small nod. "When I was your age, my Mum and Dad didn't have much money. I have... had six older brothers. I know just what you feel like. Do you know what made me feel better on my seventh birthday? Do you want to know?"

"Yes." Lucy whispered back.

"My Mum let me be a princess for the day! She didn't give me any special presents, but she made it my special day. Another birthday I got a special hairbrush from my brothers, but they had all added something to it, a spell or something, that made it special. You don't need expensive presents to make you happy. Sometimes all you need is a bit of attention. You know what, I think that you're going to have your best birthday ever tomorrow."

"Why, Gi... Miss Weasley?"

"Call me Ginny," she smiled, looking toward the girl's mother, "Because I think that you Mummy has been listening to our conversation, and I think that she's planning something!" Ginny whispered, "Just you wait and see! Now go on, it's your turn to see the goblin now. Have a good birthday!"

Ginny watched as she skipped up to the desk with her mother, chatting all the time about her birthday tomorrow. They only took about a minute to get sorted out, and then they were being lead to another goblin who was going to take them on one of the carts. Ginny waved back at Lucy with a smile on her face as she caught the girl waving furiously at her. She walked up to the goblin sitting at the desk and said,

"Good morning. I was wondering if I could speak to the Head of Estates?" she enquired politely. The goblin looked up, his glasses perched on the end of his nose and a slight frown on his face.

"Yes," he answered, slowly, "But as far as we know, no one in the Weasley family has recently acquired possession of an estate."

"It's not for me. I have a letter from Harry Potter." The goblin's frown increased.

"Mr Potter..." he started,

"Is not allowed to enter the building," Ginny said, impatiently, "But as long as his money and estates are in your bank, and you do not allow his a consultation, even via another person, you are committing theft." She was now playing on the goblin's moral; she knew from Bill that above all they considered theft the most unforgiveable crime. He paused for a moment before saying,

"Very well. Please wait here for a moment." The goblin hopped off his stool and walked down a small corridor. He returned a few minutes later, and said, "Please go and wait over there," pointing towards the gate to the vaults, "Sir Gotring will meet you there." Ginny did as she was told and waited by the gate.

She could now see a reasonably tall goblin walking towards her down the corridor between the many raised desks. She could tell, even though she couldn't understand Goblin fashion if her life depended on it, that he was important, well-respected, and most likely, quite rich too. Every other Goblin he passed, whether leading visitors to or from vaults or otherwise, stopped their movements as he passed. As he approached, he spoke in very fast Gobbledegook to a passing Goblin, who immediately stopped his previous job and turned in his tracks, walking very quickly to another tunnel, which Ginny was sure that she had never seen before. When the Important Goblin reached her, he said sharply,

"Follow me, Miss Weasley." He then started to walk down a side tunnel just to the right of where they were standing. Ginny had to stoop on more than one occasion when the tunnel became particularly low. After five minutes of uncomfortable walking, the tunnel widened out into what looked like a meeting room. On the desk were old pieces of parchment with the Potter crest on. Gotring sat down on the far side of the desk and motioned for Ginny to take the other seat. It was quite uncomfortable, but that was not why she was here.

"Miss Weasley, I heard from Tikrot that you were here on behalf of Mister Potter. Gringotts does not understand why this is. He has not recently become owner of an estate. Here," he unrolled the parchment, took a look at it, before summarising for Ginny, "it says that Mister Potter is currently complete owner of the Black and Potter family estates." Ginny nodded.

"That is why I came. He wanted to," she opened the letter, "I, Mister Harry James Potter, wish to know to entire contents of both of my estates. I hereby give consent and permission for Ginevra Weasley to know and pass on this information directly, knowing whatever she wishes to. There. He wants to know what the Potter and Black estates contain. Do you know?"

"Of course I know. Let me see. From what I can see here, the Black estate allows him permission to take from and place into the Black vault whatever he wishes. It also grants him ownership of the Black house elf, the house, whatever is inside it, and permission to do whatever he wishes to do with it."

"And the Potter?"

"Access into and ownership of the Potter vault, the manor and its contents, any possessions in other..." Ginny cut him off.

"The_ manor_?"

"Yes. Any possessions..." Again Ginny cut him off, her expression bright,

"That's what he wanted to know. You don't have the address of it do you?" Gotring looked most disgruntled, but dutifully read out,

"Potter Manor, previously Hampstead Hall, Sussex. That's all it gives, but it should be enough to apparate to. I think... yes, it is still connected to the floo network, so you could also use that. Could I ask, is Mister Potter planning on moving in there, because if he does, he must contact the bank to..." For the third time Ginny cut him off,

"No, no. He's planning on opening... You'll see. It should be in the paper's by next week. Thanks!"

**A/N just a reminder that I need characters! And a BETA!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Hello! I'm in a good mood this week; not quite sure why... Anyway, I got two reviews last chapter – thank you NoTyOu3 and Gryffindor Glory! Happy now! Right, so in case you missed it last week, I NEED CHARACTERS! Okay, that's a lie, I don't need them – btw, thanks for the character I got last chapter from Gryffindor Glory, already know exactly what I'm going to do with him! – But I want you to feel involved! And also, it takes up a hell of a lot of time thinking of people. Just to give you an idea, I'm planning on having around 60 people there – So far I have thought of three! So please, leave a review with THEIR FULL NAME, DATE OF BIRTH – this is set in July 2001 – BLOOD STATUS, ANY SIBLINGS, IF THEY ATTEND HOGWARTS, AND THEIR HOUSE. Why they are in the orphanage and their personality would be helpful, but it is not compulsory. In a few chapters time, I will tell you which adult characters I will need, but not yet.**

**Phew! Long A/N! Most of you won't have read it, but never mind!**

On a windy, July morning, a loud 'pop' could be heard; obviously recognisable as an apparation by any witch or wizard. Four young adults stood side by side, all holding hands. The elder girl looked around her, taking in the view of derelict gardens in all directions before frowning and asking,

"Is this the right place?" One of the boys, who was standing to her left, also took a glance around, before squinting due North and replying,

"Yes. If you look closely, you can just see a building." He grinned, "And anyway, with all four us joined and trying to apparate to the same location, we can't have easily gone wrong." At her frown, he added, "You worry too much, Hermione. Come on; let's see if we can find the door." He gestured to the other girl and boy to proceed, then took out his wand. "We're going to have to use severing charms to cut through these weeds." The plants in question were towering over them, at least six feet high. Once all four of them had started to cast charms at them, however, they receded happily and without problem.

After fifteen minutes of solid spell-casting, the four of them were exhausted. Thankfully they had travelled almost all of the way from the gate where they had apparated just inside of. The last stretch of land was paved over, and though it was teeming with weeds between the paving stones, it was easy to walk across. Now that they were all close enough to admire the building properly, they were all speech-less. The house, _mansion_, was at least five floors high, probably more if you counted the attic. It was a beautiful pale blue colour, with cream edging and pillars. The side of the house that they were facing was the back, judging by the lack of a front door. The boy with black hair dragged the younger girl over to one of the, surprisingly crystal clean, and peered through, cupping his eyes with his hands.

"Look, Ron, 'Mione! This must be a ballroom! And look, you can see the entrance hall if you look through those doors on the other side of the wall! And Ginny..." He turned around, looking for her, but she had disappeared. Ron and Hermione had been too busy smiling at Harry's excitement to notice, but they were all worried. Even though it had been years since Voldemort's downfall, there were still people around who would prefer Harry or the Weasleys dead. On more than one occasion, mad 'fans' or Harry had tried to Avada Kedavra him, just to see if he could be killed. Luckily his auror training came into use then, and he had escaped unscathed, but more serious attempts on his life had happened.

"Gin! Ginny!"

"Ginny!"

"Where are you?" Voices called out to her. Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way carefully around the side of the massive building, just in case someone was lying in wait for them. They edged around the corner, Harry first, followed by Hermione with Ron at the back. They had adopted this strategy sometime after Harry and Ron had both completed their training, just because it protected Hermione – who was still not quite as good at duelling as the boys, much to her disappointment. The idea had come from a training session when they had learnt to do this if they ever had to escort either muggles or wizards in danger from a location. Hermione always seemed to think that it was an unnecessary precaution, but went along with it.

"Look!" said Ron, pointing to the big oak doors. "They're open. She must have gone inside! It's fine, come on..." he started to lower his wand, but Hermione 'shushed' him before saying,

"You don't know. It might be a trap. Oh, don't roll your eyes at me Ronald Weasley, if..."

"Hermione," grumbled Harry, "Can't this wait; can we just go and see if Ginny's okay? Ron, she might be fine, but we don't know. So can we please go?"

"Sure mate, but I'm just saying..." he cut himself off when he caught Hermione's glare. "Right, so you go first Harry, we'll watch out for anybody outside."

Had this been a less stressful day, the trio might have noticed the beautiful gardens rolling out towards the North. This side of the garden seemed to have been kept in good condition. They might also have noticed the amazing exterior of Potter Mansion. The ground floor, on this side, was above a basement level – the ground was on a slope – with marble steps leading up to a veranda that stretched around five metres to either side of the beautiful oak double doors, a beautiful gold lion door knocker on the right door. The banister was similar to the one at Hogwarts leading down to the boathouse. There were arched windows along the stone wall of the basement, with a black painted steel railing about seven metres in front of them. Up the stairs was a walkway lined with six giant marble pillars to the outside, reaching up to the top of the third floor. These supported a magnificent triangular work of stone and marble, depicting a scene from the ancient times. There were two smaller replicas of these pillars standing guard on either side of the front doors, joined by a marble slab above the doors. There were five floor-to-ceiling glass windows to each side of the centre, topped by marble features. There were similar windows, albeit slightly less tall, on each of the five floors above. The most beautiful feature of the house, according to Lily Evans, was the beautiful engraving on a rectangular piece of sandstone just above the doors. It was an engraving of the house and the grounds. Engraved around the marble frame of it were each and every member of the Potter family, with Birth and on most of them death dates, dating back to the 1600s. There were hundreds of them, but because they were only around one centimetre squared, they could all fit on. These were magical engraving that changed whenever a member of the family's image crossed the threshold. Harry's, however, already looked like him at this age.

AS the three of them entered the house, their communal first thought was of confusion. The house looked spotless and lived in; the only thing unusual about it was the lack of furniture. Hermione tiptoed over to the opening in the wooden panelling, which served as door to another room.

"Look, Harry. This must have been the ballroom that you saw earlier!" Harry and Ron also crept over to peer into the room. It was huge, around twelve by fifteen metres and the ceiling was very high. It was decorated in pale green paint, with delicate gold swirls on the walls. The ceiling was ivory white, and also had the golden swirls, although these were raised. The floor was a very shiny wood, and looked like it had been polished recently.

They could have stayed there, transfixed, until they heard a creaking of floor boards overhead.

"Ginny." Harry said, worried, "How could I have forgotten? Come on. Quietly, now." Together, they crept back into the entrance hall. This too had a shiny wooden floor, and high ceilings. On the opposite wall was the same wooden panelling with green inserts that had been on the wall concealing the ballroom. They didn't stop to look into the room however, instead making their way towards the huge, grand staircase at the opposite end of the hall. It too, was polished wood. It started in the centre of the hall, before splitting into two, each side curved round to, presumably land on the floor above, on either side of where the staircase would have started, had it been on the second floor. It had grand wooden banisters with curling decorations on. Along the entire wall in the hall were paintings of Harry's ancestors, but neither he, nor Ron and Hermione were worried about that at the moment.

As they reached the top of the stairs, they looked both left and right, taking their surroundings. To either side was an end of a corridor, with rooms on either side. They were around a third of the size of the ballroom, but still big in comparison to the Burrow and Grimmauld Place. A mumble of voices was coming from one of the rooms down the right hands side of the corridor, so the three of them walked quietly down that way, Harry motioning to them to be quiet.

The decor upstairs was very similar to that of the ground floor, but the colour scheme on this floor was purple and silver. Again, the floor was wooden, and again, it looked polished.

When Harry, Ron and Hermione were stood outside of the door that the sounds were coming from, they paused. Harry put his hand on the door, before sharply pushing it open.

**He he! Cliff-hanger! Anyway, please leave a review with a character. Or saying that you are willing to be a BETA. Or just for the sake of it!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N I thought that I had put this up last Saturday, but obviously not. Anyway, I have a bit of a confession to make. I'm going skiing next week, so I won't be able to post a chapter next Saturday. After that I have to start revising for exams, but I will hopefully still be able to update regularlyish.**

**Okay, so here is the next chapter. I hope that you enjoy it. Some character ideas would be nice. Just a name, age, background...**

When Harry, Ron and Hermione were stood outside of the door that the sounds were coming from, they paused. Harry put his hand on the door, before sharply pushing it open. The sight that greeted them was definitely not what they had expected.

The room that they were standing in was very similar to the rest of the house that they had seen so far, but this seemed more homely. There was a worn carpet on the floor, a lit fire in the fireplace, a big painting of Harry's parents and grandparents on the wall above two big red leather armchairs. On one of these Ginny was sitting, her legs covered with a warm-looking blanket and a cup of tea in her hand. The huge smile that she had had on her face did not disappear when she turned to look toward the door, but a slight frown came onto her face.

"Ginny!" Harry cried, running to her, "What happened, we were so worr..." He stopped as he took in her state. "Someone's being pampered. Who's here?" Although he now knew that Ginny was okay, he still couldn't quite lose his paranoia. A small clearing of the throat from behind the other armchair caught his attention. "Show yourself." He commanded. Two small house-elves crept from behind the cover of the chair, both looking extremely distressed.

"We is sorry, Master, but we is knowing of the Miss to be your friend, so we is thinking that we might make her feel comfortable. We is not meaning to upset you, sir." The, presumably male, house-elf said, almost crying. He glanced quickly at harry, before running to the fire. From both Kreacher and Dobby's various methods of punishment, harry quickly deduced what the elf was trying to do and shouted,

"Stop!" To the surprise of him, Harry and Hermione, he did. He looked torn between punishing and not punishing himself.

"Please, Master, I is needing to punish myself." He said, through gritted teeth.

"No, you... Wait. Did you just call me Master?" The elf nodded, still biting his lower lip. Harry turned to the other house-elf and said, "Does that mean that I am your master too?" The second elf smiled, and said,

"Yes. We used to work for... Master James and Mistress Lily, before..." she stopped, recollected herself and said, "Now we work for you, Master Harry, sir. We heard voices outside, so we went downstairs. That was where we met Miss Ginny. We explained what was happening, and she wanted to talk to us. We didn't mean to disobey orders, sir." Harry looked at Ginny, and she nodded, confirming their story. Harry smiled at them both. He then turned to Ron and Hermione, beckoning them to enter the room properly. They did so, hands remaining interlinked.

"What are your names?" asked Hermione tentatively, trying not to upset the male house-elf any further.

"I is Totin," replied the male house=elf.

"And I am Binky." Replied the female. Hermione smiled at her.

"Binky," she said, "You speak very well. Have you been taught to by someone?" asked Hermione.

"Yes. Mistress Susan and Lily both taught me. Mistress Susan brought me up since my mother died in her service. She taught me to read and write." She announced proudly.

"So what did my mum teach you?" asked Harry, joining in the conversation. The smile on Binky's face became, if it were possible, even wider.

"Watch." She said. She pointed her finger to the floor. Another two red armchairs appeared there on the dusty floor, perfectly balanced. Hermione's face looked fit to burst, as did Binky's. Harry, Ginny and Ron were suitably amazed, but Totin's was set in a scowl. Ginny noticed just as Hermione began praising Binky's amazing skills,

"But that was just... I have never..." Ginny quickly cut her off.

"Hermione, just a sec, I mean, it's amazing and everything, but don't you think that we should explain why we're here." Hermione did not look pleased, but she could tell that Ginny was going somewhere with this. Ginny turned to Totin and Binky and said, "Harry has decided to found a children's home." At their blank expressions, she began to repeat what Harry had first explained to her when he had told her of the idea. When she had finished, Ron asked the two elves,

"Um, yeh, hi. I was just wondering if we could see the rest of the house."

"I will show you all around, Mister" answered Binky immediately. Ginny, however noticed the return of Totin's sour expression.

"No," Ginny started, "I think that we should split up. That way we might see all of it by sunset! Harry and I will go with Totin around the inside of the house, and Hermione and Ron can go with Binky to see the grounds. Is that okay with everybody?" Everyone, humans and house-elves alike, nodded. Binky then proceeded to take Ron and Hermione, one in each of her tiny hands, and pulled them out into the corridor, chatting all the time.

Totin, however, did not seem as enthusiastic about his tour. Ginny gave Harry a sharp nudge to get him to say something. Harry strode over to where Totin was crouching by the fire, his head bowed.

"Totin," he asked cautiously, "do you... shall we... are you okay?" The small elf looked up from his knees, and looked directly into Harry's eyes. Harry recognised the look in his eyes. He had seen it worn on many people before. It was one of both mourning and joy. "I look like him, don't I? Like my dad. Is that what's upsetting you? Do you miss him?" The elf jumped to his feet, a snarl on his old face.

"Yes, Master," he drawled fiercely, "That's what's wrong. But it is not because I miss him. I hated the boy. Him and his little friend Black. They treated me like scum. How do I know that you won't do the same?"

Harry could feel himself welling up inside. It was this exact treatment of Kreacher that had led Sirius to his death, to know that his father had done the same was not a pleasant thought.

"You don't know," said Harry quietly. "But can you believe that I don't want to hurt you? I don't want to treat you badly. My mother treated you well, even if my dad didn't. Can you believe me?" There was no reply from the elf until Ginny cut in,

"Kreacher!"

"What?" said Harry, turning to look at her.

"Kreacher! He can tell Totin about you. Totin might believe him." Harry turned his head to glance at Totin, who was once again crouching in front of the fire. Then Harry called very clearly,

"Kreacher." The old elf appeared with a crack. He smiled at his master, and greeted him warmly. Harry greeted him similarly, then added, "Kreacher, I would like you to meet Totin, he is..."

"Yes." Kreacher interrupted, "I know him. We was, we is brothers." He walked over to his brother, placing a knarled hand onto his back. Totin looked up sharply. His face turned angry.

"Get out! Get out of this house. Don't you ever return!" shouted Totin. He was standing up now, tears threatening to spill out of his big brown eyes. Kreacher took a step back, looking at Harry.

"Totin," said Harry, "Kreacher is also my house-elf. I thought that, well really Ginny thought of it, but she thought that maybe he could talk to you..."

Kreacher turned to Harry and Ginny.

"Totin is my younger brother, by seven years. The Blacks was not requiring another elf, so they sended him to work for the Potters." He turned back to his brother. "I is sorry, you cannot blame me. If it is making you feel better, Mother was not living much after you was taken. She is not living for much more than a few weeks. I was wanting to visit you, but I was not getting permission to visit." Kreacher's eyes were now overflowing with tears. His voice was now becoming unsteady. "Please, I is saying sorry." Totin fell down to the floor, his face streaming with tears. Kreacher rushed over to him, and pulled him onto his lap, cradling him like one would a child. Ginny nudged Harry again, and they both exited the room quietly, softly shutting the door behind them.

**A/N P.S. A review would be nice...**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Okay, so this is late. But, I **_**do**_** have an excuse. I was skiing, with **_**NO WIFI!**_** What the hell is wrong with these places! And then I was sick, but here it is. I know that its short, but I did it in half an hour, so I know that it's not of the best quality. Next chapter should be up next Saturday.**

Totin and Kreacher reappeared from behind the oak door minutes later, both with tear streaked faces and huge smiles on them.

"We is reaching an agreement, Master Harry, sir" said Totin, still grinning madly. Ginny shot Harry an 'I told you so' smirk before saying to them both,

"Brilliant. Now, how about that tour?"

Totin led the three of them out into the corridor again, this time turning not towards the stairs, but in the other direction. They peered into different rooms on each side of the corridor as they went, listening to Totin's comments as they did so. Each of these rooms was roughly the same size as the room that the four adults found the house-elves in. Each room had oak panelling on the walls, but these had carpets on the floor, and a matching colour of ceiling. The different rooms all appeared to have different uses; some must have been studies, others bedrooms and some of them not even Totin knew the use of. Each room had dusty furnishings, which had obviously not been cleaned in years, unlike the room which Totin and Binky had previously occupied.

At the end of the corridor there was a door in the dead centre. Totin carefully pushed the oak door open. Unlike all of the other rooms, this looked reasonably well kept. The lights turned on automatically as the four of them entered the room. It was bigger than the rooms that they had been into before, but not quite a quarter of the size of the ballrooms downstairs. As Ginny and Harry neared the centre of the room, they could see that the walls were lined with shelves, each shelf filled with books.

"Hermione would love this!" joked Harry, grinning. Ginny grinned back at him, before asking Totin,

"Do you know how many books are in here?"

"Nearly 20, 000, Miss." At Harry's gasp, he added, "It is not being unusual to be finding this many books in wizarding families, Master. This collection is being from centuries ago."

Totin continued his tour of the magnificent house to the other end of the corridor. Most of the rooms on either side of the corridor were similar to what they had seen before, but one room was different. Harry could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising as he crossed the threshold. He could sense the powerful magic emanating from the coal black walls.

This room was not unlike the others in size, but its contents were completely different. There was a single black stone on the black tile floor, about the size of a golden snitch. The walls were coal black, but Harry could not quite determine the material of which they were made. The ceiling, Harry assumed, would be black like the rest of the room, but it was not. It echoed entirely the sky outside, much like the ceiling of the Great Hall. The weather, incidentally, was heavy rain.

Harry turned to Kreacher, who was just about to pick up the stone, muttering about untidiness, and shouted,

"Stop!" Harry was not quite sure what had made him say this, but one could never be too sure around unfamiliar magic. Kreacher did so immediately and turned to his master with a frown on his face. "Kreacher, would you... Would you and Totin," he corrected himself, "Go down to the kitchen please and make four hot chocolates and three of whatever you two and Binky will have." Kreacher turned to Totin and signalled him forward. Totin grabbed Kreacher's arm and with a crack, they disappeared.

Harry then turned his attention to Ginny, who was walking curiously towards the stone.

"Ginny," Harry warned quietly, "don't touch that." But Ginny either hadn't heard, or was not bothered by what Harry had said. She continued to walk slowly towards the small rock. Harry caught up with her easily and grabbed her hands. She shook her head, as if trying to get out of a trance, before turning to her boyfriend and snarling. Harry almost dropped her hands from shock, but his auror training had gotten him used to surprises. Instead of letting her have her way, he pulled her out of the room with great effort, before kicking the door shut and leaning on it, panting.

Ginny continued to glare at him, but Harry didn't care anymore.

"Let's go down to the kitchen, shall we? If we can find it!" Harry joked, but Ginny was still not happy with him. He reached down to hold her hand, but she pulled it away from his grasp. Harry was not quite content to let her walk on her own, so he grabbed her wrist and started to pull her back down the corridor to the stairs.

After many wrong turns, Harry and Ginny finally arrived in the kitchen. It was a huge room, around half of the size of the house, located in the basement. Not much of the space was being used, however. Harry quickly spotted Kreacher and Totin sitting at an old, but still robust, kitchen table. There were four steaming hot cups of hot chocolate standing in a diamond in the centre of the table, and another, smaller, cup of the same with masses of whipped cream a little space from the other four. Totin and Kreacher's cups were the same as the other smaller cup, but presumably had different contents, Harry thought.

"Master!" Totin said, "We was just wondering where you was! Is you two sitting down now, or is we all waiting for the other Mister and Miss?"

"I don't think that Hermione and Ron will be long. I seem to recall their irrational prejudice of wet weather," he added, with a glance at Ginny, who was quietly chuckling. "We may as well start without them. So, Totin, tell us some more about my grandparents. I've heard much about my parents, but nothing about them."

**A/N a review would be nice... **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Okay, so I know that I haven't updated in over two months, but I genuinely didn't have time. I'm not going to bore you with everything that has been going on in my life, but I did have exams/revision for almost all of this time. Anyway, here's the next chapter. It's quite short, but I only had an hour to write this in! Enjoy!**

Hermione grinned at Ron as they were both dragged quickly down the corridor by Binky. She just couldn't believe what she was seeing. This house-elf had been educated in both English and magic. If she could speak to a few contacts at the ministry...

Binky cut off her thinking as they reached the huge front doors.

"Miss,"

"Hermione. Call me Hermione please." Hermione interrupted. Binky nodded, before continuing.

"Mister,"

"And you can call him Ron." Hermione interrupted again. Ron shot her a glare.

"Yes, of course. Miss Hermione," Ron elbowed Hermione just as she was going to interrupt again. "And Mister Ron, where do you want to go first?" At their blank looks, she added, "Shall we just go all around the grounds then?" Hermione nodded, and then began to follow Binky out of the doors into the sunshine.

Binky led them just far enough away to be able to see the entire house, but still close enough to properly appreciate it.

"This house was built in the 1500s, but there has been a manor here since before Hogwarts was founded. This house has been magically renovated five times since it was originally built. It also has a charm on it which means that it cannot be renovated without the owner's permission." Binky told them. "I don't really know much more about the house, but Totin does. Shall I take you to the maze now?"

Hermione, whose arm had now been dropped by Binky, walked alongside the elf, while Ron dawdled behind them. Even when they arrived at the entrance of the, very overgrown, maze, Hermione and Binky continued to talk endlessly. Ron was fed up with being excluded, and with a hint of jealousy, marched boldly into the maze.

At first he turned left, right and continued straight on in a random sequence, before realising that this would only make him become lost. He paused, attempting to get his bearings, then almost face palmed as he remembered to use the Four Point Spell. He placed his wand on his palm and muttered the spell, but instead of his wand pointing north, it remained perfectly still. Ron turned around, and then repeated the spell, but his wand still wouldn't move.

Ron was beginning to wonder what was going on. In an attempt to get himself out of the maze, he attempted to cast the vanishing charm on one of the surrounding hedges, but it was to no avail. It was becoming clear to him that the maze would not permit magic within itself. He continued to walk ahead, turning only left, a muggle trick that his father had taught him.

As he turned a corner, the overgrown hedges blocked out almost all of the light, covering him in a blanket of darkness. Out of habit he muttered,

"Lumos!" To his surprise and delight his wand lit up. Thinking that he could now use magic, he attempted the four point spell again, but it did not work. Ron was starting to see a pattern. He conjured a mouse, before attempting to vanish it. He now understood what was happening. He could only use magic that would not enable him to exit the maze. He scooped up the mouse and put it in his pocket. As a last resort, he tried to apparate to the house. This did not work. Then he tried to apparate five paces down from him. This did work. With a grin on his face, he apparated back to the entrance of the maze. The maze had covered up the entrance, but there was an old sign which told him that he had to get to the middle of the maze before he could get out. Unfortunately, apparating to the middle wouldn't work, as Ron had no idea where the middle was.

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"So they put the magic on it so that people couldn't cheat? Have you ever heard of more uptight people, Ron?" Hermione asked, laughing. She turned around, "Ron?" Hermione gasped, before saying loudly, "RON!"

Binky looked nervously from Hermione to the entrance of the maze. Although the entrance looked open from this side, it was possible that he was stuck inside on the other side of it. Totin had told her once that there was no way out, only an entrance, but she sure that it wasn't true. Miss Lily would never have allowed it. Nor would Miss Susan have done.

"Miss Hermione," Binky asked cautiously, "do you think that Mister Ron might have gone into the maze?" Hermione's gaze snapped back to the elf. Her eyes grew wide, having already heard the rumours of the maze from Binky.

"He better not have done," Hermione muttered, "or believe me, any chances of his having kids will be gone. Or I'll just kill him. Whichever will be quicker..." Her muttering continued until Binky said quietly,

"Do you think that you should inform Master Harry?" Hermione stopped her constant muttering and nodded, sending a patronus to Harry to inform him of Ron's disappearance.

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Harry's mouth turned into a perfect circle as Hermione's otter faded into nothing, and uttered only two words,

"Oh shit!"

**A/N Next chapter should be up by Monday at the latest. Review? **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Enjoy!**

Just after Hermione had sent her patronus, she began to feel drops of water on her head. Looking up, she spotted a large, dark rain cloud almost immediately above her head. Nodding to Binky, the two of them ran towards the dry comfort of the house. Hermione banged her fist on the door until it swung open with magic.

They heard running footsteps coming towards them from around the corner, before Harry came into sight. He skidded to a halt immediately in front of them, panting, before asking,

"What have you done with Ron?" with a smile on his face. Hermione's glare, however, was enough to shut him up. "Yeah, alright, I'm only joking! So what actually happened?" Just as Hermione was about to open her mouth to tell him, Harry cut her off. "Actually, why don't you tell us what happened while we have hot chocolate?" Harry led Binky and Hermione – well, Binky led Harry and Hermione – to the kitchen and sat them down. They each picked up their own mug. Hermione greeted Ginny and Totin before beginning her story.

"Well," Hermione began, "we were standing outside the maze..."

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While Hermione was explaining to everyone else what had happened, Ron was still stuck in the maze. He had gotten lost more times than he could remember. He apparated back to the entrance to start his trail again. Before starting again, however, he sat down. There had to be some way of finding the middle. As he was thinking up ways to reach the centre, he felt a drop of rain land on his neck. He looked up, watching the rain come down until he got a drop of water in his eye. He stood up quickly, rubbing his eye,

"Bloody hell!" It seemed that the rain had snapped his mind back to the task at hand. "Great, now any footprints that I had will be washed away!" As he said this, he remembered the book of muggle fairytales that Hermione had forced him to read. He cast his mind back to the story of Hansel and Gretel. "But I can't use breadcrumbs, they'll just wash away. But... I could use... pebbles!"

Pleased with his idea, Ron conjured a basket of pebbles and began to take the right fork, dropping a pebble every three paces.

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Hermione had finished her story and was sipping at her hot chocolate with a worried look on her face. Ginny slipped around to the other side of the table and gave her a reassuring hug.

"We'll find him, Hermione, don't worry." Ginny said softly. Binky cleared her throat quietly.

"Master," she said, "I think that I might know how to find Mister Ron." Everyone's gazes turned towards the elf. "Master James spoke one day of a map that shows where anyone and everyone is." The hopeful expressions on the faces of Harry and the two girls disappeared as Harry explained to Binky that,

"The Marauder's Map only shows those in Hogwarts." However, Totin shook his head.

"Master Harry, Master James is getting this idea for his '_map'_ from one in the library I is thinking."

"You have a library?" asked Hermione, her mouth wide open.

"What map? Show me!" Harry commanded.

Totin led them up a set of back stairs at the back of the kitchen which led to the first floor. They hurried along the corridor until they reached the end. Totin pushed the door open with a bit of effort. Hermione waved her wand to turn on the lights, before gasping.

The number of books in the library did not rival those of Hogwarts, but the library itself looked much more magnificent. It was generous in floor space, but it was the height of at least three floors. All of the four walls were covered with oak shelves, housing different shapes and sizes of books.

Totin walked straight over to the far wall and pulled out one of the books. The shelves surrounding the hole where the book was, pulled away, leaving only a square section the size of a window. This entire section was covered in a framed map.

The map was dated 97AD, but it showed the present layout of the manor and its grounds. There were five names inside the library. Harry looked carefully around the map until he spotted Ron's name. It was in the centre of a large outline of a triangle.

"Is that the maze?" Harry asked Totin.

"Yes Master." Totin replied.

"Why doesn't it show the hedges?"

"The hedges is changing when anybody is exiting the maze, Master."

The three adults watched as Ron's name moved, seemingly randomly, around the triangle.

"Hang on," said Ginny, peering over Harry's shoulder, "how come it shows you two?" she gestured at Binky and Totin.

"The map is showing animals too, Miss" Totin replied.

"So what's that, then?" Ginny asked, pointing at an unnamed dot moving slightly in the centre of the maze?"

**A/N The chapter after next is when I will begin to introduce characters. If you remember from the first chapter, it says that there are five children on the streets. I have four of them. This is your last chance to submit the last one – who is 13. Any other character ideas would be appreciated. **

**Reviews make me update faster. Next update will probably be on Thursday.**


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